How to Make a Living as a Poet [Paperback]

Gary Mex Glazner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2005

In How to Make a Living as a Poet, leading slam poet Gary Mex Glazner shows how to turn poetic passion into a paying profession, revealing how he and other writers have become "full-time poets," actually listing their life's passion on their tax forms. Glazner should know. He has worked as a poet-in-residence at a hotel, secured sponsorship for 100 poets on an 8,000-mile tour of the U.S., and traveled the world with a poet's eye and budget, performing everywhere from Katmandu to Bangkok to Paris. From the story of his own project using poetry to help Alzheimer's patients to an interview about the world's only "Poetry Diner," Glazner details how creativity off the page can energize audiences and spark new approaches to writing. The book offers marketing ideas for how to break out of the "poetry ghetto," explains the economic impact of slam festivals, and shows how to not just survive but thrive financially off one's art. Included are interviews with Sherman Alexie, Mary Karr, Naomi Shihab Nye, James Kass, Beau Sia, Janine Pommy Vega, and other poets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (March 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932360697
• ISBN-13: 978-1932360691
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Can Make a Living As a Poet, July 6, 2007

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Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Make a Living as a Poet (Paperback)

Let me give you the upshot of this book in a quick thumbnail. Yes, it is possible to make a living as a poet, no matter what your mother told you. But you must remember two important points if you want to make a living as a poet: first, you will not make a living at writing poetry. Second, you must do something no one has ever done before.

This book is full of examples of people who make a living (or part of a living) as poets, and the ways they do so. And none of them make their living by sitting in their garrets inscribing verse. They all find ways to get out into the community and sell themselves, AS POETS, as a commodity that people are willing to buy.

The Poet's Diner. Poetry tours. Youth poetry expositions. Poems and poetry writing as theatrical performances. Poetry pubs. Cowboy poetry. These are just a few of the ways poets break out of the poetry ghetto and make their literary calling pay. For poets who make a living, as much creativity goes into the way they sell themselves as into how they write the actual poems.

Gary Mex Glazner derives part of this book from his own experiences as a paid poet, and part of it from interviews with other poets. Naomi Shihab Nye, Sherman Alexie, and poetry showman Bob Holman all weigh in with ways that they've made poetry pay its own way in their lives. These comments are informative and instructive if you want to get a little cash back from your investment of yourself in your poetry.

The one thread that comes up time and again in this book is that you can't make a living as a poet if you just do what everybody else does. You need to break free and establish yourself as an individual. Because only when you begin to sell yourself will you be able to sell your poetry.

This book is full of ways in which poets have turned themselves into profitable commodities. You probably won't be able to do exactly the same thing they have done, but if this book is able to spark your imagination in ways that help you establish your own identity, then it has certainly done its job.

At the very top of this book Glazner is very clear: "This book will bring you no closer to the muse." But if you study this book, and take its precepts to heart, it may make you more able to hear the muse. And when you hear her, she will help you do something nobody has ever done before. Then you will make a living as a poet.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am proof this book works, July 14, 2010

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C. Lane - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Make a Living as a Poet (Paperback)

I can't go on enough about this book. This book has been my "bible" since it was first printed - referencing its wisdom periodically.

Gary Glazner is a genius when it comes to rethinking the concept of being an artist. This book brings the profession of the Bard back into the mainstream and shows us it's O.K. to love what you do, serve your community and maintain a lifestyle worth living.

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesomeness With Good Ideas, December 17, 2011

By 

Allen Taylor "Allen Taylor" (York Springs, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How to Make a Living as a Poet (Paperback)

I wasn't sure I'd like this book when I read it, but I loved it. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming a full-time poet and making a living from their craft.

Not all of these ideas will fit your personality, but Glazner definitely thinks outside of the box. He gives examples from other poets' lives as well as his own and you are never left without something to cogitate or meditate on. Read it twice. You'll love it.